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summer, the subsoil in the low grounds is always saturated 

 with moisture, and numerous springs issue from the surface. 

 On the plains and slopes of the hills, there is, all the 

 year, an abundance of grass, which serves to pasture large 

 flocks of sheep for the supply of the vallies and the towns 

 on the coast. 



Owing to the badness of the road, our progress had been 

 so slow that it was long after dark when we arrived at a 

 ravine, down which we continued to Huayllay, a small 

 Indian town, and the centre of a mining district, eight leagues 

 from Casa-cancha. The monotonous appearance of the hills 

 among which we had travelled, at a very slow pace, the 

 intolerable headache we suffered, and the benumbing cold 

 of the evening wind, made this altogether a fatiguing and 

 unpleasant day's journey. 



One of our party, a Spaniard, conducted us to the house of 

 the Governor, who was his countryman. He had been a soldier 

 in the Spanish army, but having married an Indian woman 

 of Huayllay, he settled in the town, where his intelligence 

 and activity procured him the office of Governor; to which 

 he added the profession of a miner, and the trade of a shop- 

 keeper. Our apartment was in keeping with the mixed 

 pursuits of the master of the house; the table was covered 

 with papers relative to the number of recruits, and the 

 tribute to be furnished by the Indians under his jurisdiction; 

 a heap of silver ore occupied a corner of the mud floor, and 

 candles, sugar, jars of spirits, and similar merchandise were 

 spread around, with very little regard to ari-angement. Our 

 host and his dark lady vied with each other in ministering to 

 our wants ; and, stretched on the floor of their domicile, we 

 soon forgot the pima and our tedious ride from Casa-cancha. 



In the morning, we were again greeted by the glittering 

 hoar-frost, which added to the desolate and wintry aspect of 

 the town and surrounding hills, where not a tree nor a trace 

 of cultivation was to be seen. All the corn and vegetables 

 consumed by the inhabitants are brought up from the vallies, 

 and have to be carried fifteen or twenty leagues. 



Having arrived at Huayllay at night, we had not perceived 



